


Made-up

by panisdead, solvent (orphan_account)



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Comment Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-19
Updated: 2011-02-19
Packaged: 2017-10-15 19:02:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/163965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panisdead/pseuds/panisdead, https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/solvent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Leho put makeup on John before the team's audience with the head of state.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Made-up

**Author's Note:**

> Tag-team comment fic.

The Leho put makeup on John before the team's audience with the head of state, in accordance with ( _the prophecy_ , John thinks mutinously) recent fashion. The Leho ruler is young; she only ascended to the throne a few months ago, and her attendants smile apologetically as they brush shadow over John's eyelids and in the hollow of his throat. Surprisingly, they leave his lips bare--John feels somehow more naked without gloss than seems right, as though painted lips would complete the illusion and make him into John Sheppard, visiting dignitary, instead of just himself, pale and vulnerable with shadowed eyes.

*

It's worse when he walks out into the Council chamber and Rodney's eyes go straight to his naked mouth, eyes widening. John suddenly wants, irrationally badly, to lick his lips nervously, a tingling itch that gets worse when he just raises his eyebrows instead. And, worst of all, Rodney _doesn't look away_. Or, of course he does, he's gesturing and demanding as always, leaning forward to talk technology to the sharp-eyed abrasive Leho minister for agriculture and the scientific arts. But every time he looks back at John, his gaze dips to John's mouth, and it makes John twitchy as hell.

" _What_ ," he whispers finally and Rodney jumps, but instead of mumbling or shifting, he shrugs.

"You look good," he says, casually, like it's a comment on the weather, and then he swipes his broad thumb over the hollow of John's throat, stares critically at the colour. "Nice," he says and then he's talking to his scanner again while John feels himself go hot then cold and wonders if Elizabeth would really notice if he just shot Rodney already.

*

As brilliant as the Leho were with aquaculture, they were decidedly less so with cosmetics. Rodney's thumb stayed green for days, the skin fading to a sickly pea-soup cast relatively swiftly, while the edge of his thumbnail remained almost the same nearly-black tone that Sheppard had worn. Sheppard himself fared little better, glowering at Rodney in meetings from under lids stained pale lavender, looking scrubbed and pink everywhere else.

Rodney did his best to accord Sheppard his dignity, but it was hard to forget the way he'd looked, dark-eyed and flushed under the paint, or the way he'd swayed minutely when Rodney thumbed his throat. How Sheppard had licked his lips almost guiltily after, eyes flickering down and away.


End file.
